Monday, January 30, 2012

My birthday was on the 21st... the big 3 0. I am quite okay with being 30. After all, I am married, I have 4 kids, my husband is done with school, we have a house... yeah 30 sounds just about right.

Anyway, among other wonderful gifts, I got a new camera. YAY! I am still learning how to use it, but I have to say I think it is pretty awesome. It is the Sony NEX-3.

What I love about it? Well it is smaller that a traditional DSLR camera, but still has interchangeable lenses, a full manual mode, and it is 14.2 mega pixels. (I haven't used gone manual mode since my film camera back in college so it will take me a bit to remember how to use it.) And it has awesome features when it is on automatic. My favorite so far are that I can just turn it on and press one button and it will automatically blur the background for me. Awesome. And it has 50% larger image sensor so it produces better image quality and works well in low light. Like the low light at the Utah Natural History Museum. Seriously. Check out these pictures. I mean, I know they aren't award winning photographs, but never could have taken these pictures without a flash or a tripod with my old camera.

Emma had a field trip to the museum last week.

I was glad I got to go with her. These pictures were taken on the automatic mode since I had only had the camera for a few days and I was chasing after a group of second graders. And they were all hand held and with no flash. LOVE IT! Like where did it even find light on Emma's paper? It was dark in that part of the museum.

Obviously, I didn't take this picture and I am pretty sure with both have food in our mouth, but I rarely get a picture with my Emma girl. SO I just had to share it.

Oh and one more super awesome thing my new camera does... it has automatic smile detecting. So you set it on smile detecting and then when it detects a smile it takes the picture. No need to press the button. It will just keep taking pictures as long as it sees a smile. And it really works. I spent quite a bit of time playing with it. You can even set it to what kind of smile you want. No more missing the smile. :)

Friday, January 27, 2012

I recently miscarried my baby. When I woke up Thursday morning (Jan 12) I knew something was wrong. As soon as I got all my kids off to school I called my OB and he had me come in right away. (I brought Bryce with me thinking a 2 year old would be a good distraction.) As soon as my doctor started the ultrasound I knew my baby was gone. What a horrible thing to see. I was 12 weeks along I had already had a few healthy ultrasounds. I had seen my baby moving... her heart beating, but this time there's nothing. Just a very small, unmoving baby floating there. My doctor looked for what felt like a very long time before saying "Well shoot, I'm sorry." He didn't need to tell me, I knew.

Because of how far along I was, my doctor said it would be easiest and safest for me to have a D&C that night. So I called Scott and told him he should probably come home and to call his mom so she could come watch the kids while we were at the hospital. The rest of the day I tried to focus on how hungry I was. Since D&Cs are considered surgery I wasn't allowed to eat for the rest of the day, and since I had kinda a crazy morning and had not been feeling well the night before I hadn't eaten since about 6pm on Wednesday night. And focusing on hunger seemed less awful then everything else.

Everything went as well as it could at the hospital. I was only there for about 6 hours.

The next day I sent most of the day in bed. Luckily, the kids didn't have school that Friday and Scott was able to stay home from work.

By Saturday I was feeling a lot better physically, but emotionally I felt cheated. I had been sick for the past 8 weeks this baby. That is 2 months that I felt like I was being a crappy mom to my kids because I was so sick and tired all the time. I have know I was pregnant for since since mid-November. I loved this baby, I had names picked out, I knew deep down that this baby would be a girl. I had planned what her nursery would look like. The blessing gown I was going to make her. I had even bought her little gold shoes. And now she was just gone. One day I was pregnant, the next I was not, and I got nothing.

It was on Saturday that I decided I needed to make the baby a quilt. I needed to to do something, to have something. So I went to the fabric store, bought the fabric I had been eyeing and got started.

There will be no tutorial for this quilt, because I used a pattern from V & Co. I possibly could have figured out how to piece houndstooth on my own, but I wasn't really in the mood for a lot of thinking. I just wanted to make something and not think a lot. and it is a really great pattern/tutorial.

I love the back of this quilt as must as the front. These are the fabric I was going to use in her nursery... when I found out she was in fact a girl. I am glad I still used them.

My family and I are doing well now. I have been trying to get our home back in order and take time to enjoy the 4 children I do have. I actually lost a baby between my Baby Brycey and Logan. I think having been through this before has help me to be able to grieve this loss. And I feel a lot of comfort knowing that I have an eternal family and none of my children will ever truly be lost to me.

It is also good to know that I am not alone in this. There are so many women suffered a similar loss. We are a sisterhood, uniquely qualified to understand, it doesn't matter how far along you are. The moment the test comes back positive you are in love and a loss is a loss. It sucks, but the hurt doesn't have to last forever.

Friday, January 13, 2012

I really enjoyed looking through all your awesomeness tonight. It was just what I needed.

First of all you have got to see this...

Dear Desiree, please come to my house and help me organize my craft room to look like this. Seriously, you HAVE TO go over to The 36th Avenue and check out all the perfect little details and then don't be surprised when I totally copy them.

These are so cute!! Jamielyn had them at her daughter's birthday party. I have been thinking a lot about my daughter's baptism, it is coming up in a few months. and I think this would be so cute to do at the little luncheon thing after. Getting some cute straws is definitely on the list.

This Cherry Almond Cake, from Bird On A Cake, sounds SO GOOD and it is really pretty too. I love the design on top.

I love this super big print over the dress. Just a great idea from Sugar Bee Crafts.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Oh man I am still SO sick. I got over the flu thing I had (it only held on for about 10 days). Now I am just pregnant sick and I am MIS-ER-ABLE! I promise not it whine TOO much, but seriously this is horrible and I really hate not being able to get things done.

even if I am not getting a ton done (I do have a few projects that are almost done) I am glad so many of you are still achieving awesomeness.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year. I am really looking forward to 2012. There are a lot of great projects on my list and I am excited to get started on them. (if I ever get feeling better.)
But first I wanted to do a quick look back on some of my favorite projects from 2011.

Me

Welcome to Corner House, where there is always a project in progress. Hi, my name is Laura. I am a happy wife and busy mother of 5. In my "spare time" I love to explore my creative side, everything from DIY home decor, to sewing, to baking, and just about everything in between.